With a spec like that...
The other [without cost] accessory it comes with is a battery life of approximately 2 hours.
Acer's 10.1in Iconia Tab A500 wasn't the only tablet the PC giant announced this week: it also took the wraps off a 7in Android-based alternative and a second ten-incher, this one running Windows. The W500 will come with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit runing on a 1GHz AMD C-50 chip with integrated Radeon graphics. Acer has …
Surely running Windows, with an HDD and a detachable keyboard it's a bit of a stretch to put it in the same category as 'tablets'?
Seems to me it's a touchscreen laptop with a wireless keyboard!
I bet the 'droid version with no SSD, no windows tax and better battery life will outsell it 10 to 1.
When will all these me-too tablet makers realise the sweet spot is around £130-199 for a 10inch capacitive screen wi-fi tablet. Otherwise you're just knuckle-balling against Apple. There's huge volume potential because people will buy more than one if the price is right.
Is budget tablet territory. There are already plenty of them out there and you're welcome to try them but I'll tell you something first. For that price, you're getting exactly what you're paying for, budget crap. Resistive screen, no GPS, no 3G, Android 1.x without Google experience messes.
For under £200 a good spec tablet cannot be manufactured, marketed and sold, good parts just ain't that cheap.
"Surely running Windows, with an HDD and a detachable keyboard it's a bit of a stretch to put it in the same category as 'tablets'?"
I don't see why tablets and netbooks are counted as separate categories in the first place. We're going to see tablets with keyboards, and netbook/laptops with touchscreens already exist. You can run Android on netbooks, and we're going to see Windows on tablets.
We don't separate phones into categories depending on whether they have a touchscreen or not, after all.
I am genuinely interested in seeing how that Windows one sells.
It sort of looks like a (heavier) ipad but it has the "comfortable and familiar" Windows with its "millions of applications" on it. This is important because this is what many fanboys will tell you is what everyone needs in a tablet to get any real work done.
So here it is, the much vaunted "Windows Ipad".
I assume the battery life is less than stellar due to the required hardware specs and it will likely be slow to boot but you have to expect that with Windows on x86. You also have to expect premium pricing for the same reason and we've got that here for sure.
So, will this sell like hotcakes or be left in the dust by the "lesser" tablets running Android on ARM even though they don't have the "comfort of Windows" and "millions of applications"?
Interesting times indeed.